264 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



universe. In this respect we in Manchester had no 

 need to hide our heads. The Manchester School of 

 Economists had made for themselves a noble place in 

 the history of our country. Richard Cobden, John 

 Bright, Henry Ashworth, Stanley Jevons, George 

 Wilson, and might I not add the name of one who 

 was near and dear to me Edmund Potter were the 

 names of men whose labours had changed the face of 

 society and brought comfort and happiness to every 

 home in the land. Those were some of the things 

 Manchester had accomplished. Still, they must not 

 rest on their laurels. Manchester had indicated 

 her desire for education, and her wish to take a 

 leading place among the cities of the world, by the 

 position she had taken up in respect of various 

 educational institutions, including a University which 

 she would by and by recognise as one of the brightest 

 jewels in her crown. 



In my election address in November, 1885, I spoke 

 on the proposals which had then been made on the 

 possibility of returning to a retaliatory and protec- 

 tionist policy. I then held as strongly as I still hold 

 that freedom of trade is the safeguard of British 

 industry and commerce, and for the country to forsake 

 this spells ruin. Protectionist countries were at that 

 moment in a worse position than ourselves. What we 

 needed was a more extended and more exact know- 

 ledge of everything relating to the raw materials we 

 use in our industries, of the products of the industry 

 pf other nations, and of the requirements of those 

 peoples with whom we deal. That could be furnished 

 by the Government ; for our Consuls residing all over 

 the world could readily supply the Foreign Office, not 

 only with reliable information and statistics, as they 

 do now, but with actual samples, of .all the raw and 



